Reports of hostage situation after French cop shot

Last Updated Mar 23, 2018 7:30 AM EDT

Police surrounded a supermarket in southern France on Friday as an apparent hostage-taking situation played out after the shooting of a police officer. At least one witnesses told French media that a man holding people in the store claimed he was loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but police have not confirmed any motive or the exact nature of the incident.

According to France's BFMTV, the Ministry of the Interior confirmed that a security operation was underway in the Aude region of southern France.

The channel reported that four French police from Marseilles first came under fire from at least one gunman in a vehicle in the town of Carcassone. The car then proceeded to nearby Trebes, where a suspect went into a "Super U" store, taking a number of shoppers hostages.

The officer who was shot was not said to have been critically wounded, but there were unconfirmed reports that shots may have been fired inside the grocery store.

BFMTV said, according to a witness, that the the hostage-taker declared himself, "a soldier of the Islamic State."

France's elite counterterrorism police were responding to the situation and helicopters were flying overhead.

Since January 2015 France has suffered a spate of jihadist attacks that have claimed more than 240 lives in total, according to the BBC. Five people remain in custody after an apparent failed bombing attempt in a chic Paris neighborhood in October, and that same month ISIS claimed a deadly stabbing in Marseille by a man who used multiple aliases. His motives remain unclear, and ISIS has often claimed responsibility for attacks in which it had no direct role.

This is a breaking story. Please check back for regular updates.

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